Hi, I'm 19 years old. Recently one of my friends and I went in together on an order of quite a few psychoactive substances. We ordered N. rustica, Syrian rue seeds, Calea z., salvia, and also received a free gram of 'pharmaceutical grade' (whatever that means) Sceletium tortuosum. Altogether, I think this is a very good order, and there have already been a few experiences I could report. The rustica was the biggest reason my friend 'J' wanted to put this order together, and I just discovered how wise his decision was today.

When J came over the day the order came in (without the morning glory seeds, which have yet to arrive) the first thing I did with the big masses of ziplock-bagged loose leaves was break off a few leaves and chop them into a powder in a spice grinder. My friend and I thought making rustica snuff was hilarious, as snuff is already such funny stuff, and rustica has several times the nicotine of regular tobacco. I snorted it first, and found the incredible burning sensation it produced in the nose and throat to be exhilerating. I also noted that it was a subtle stimulant, and made my nose and my eyes run ('I am not crying from the pain, I swear!'). Several more people have tried my snuff in varying quantities, and it is already rather notorious.

That night a few more of our friends got together with us and smoked the rustica. We are all avid fans of tobacco, and all passionately hate commercial cigarettes. I personally started with pipe tobacco, and drifted into cigars, hookahs filled with shisha, and rolling cigarettes. None of us smoke very often, and none of us are very accustomed to inhaling hot smoke. That night, we all stood around on my friend's back porch, coughing and choking and shivering from the cold and the nicotine, and talked about how great rustica is, and how cool it would be to hyperventilate massive lungfuls of it and pass into a dream vision state like we'd read about Indians doing. I myself didn't imbibe it very heavily. 'J' smoked an entire cigarette of it and looked quite dazed and sick.

Well, today I decided to smoke a bowl of it at my house. I got out a few of the crumbly leaves and packed a bowl of them in an old briar pipe. I went out into my yard and sat on a bench in front of my pond. The very big (60 foot) elm in the middle of my yard is taking its time losing its leaves this year, and its half-barren branches reach over the entire yard. The air was still and not too cool, and the random falling leaves were very pleasant. I proceeded to light my pipe with a wooden match.

I inhaled the heavy smoke, and immediatly wished it was cured and moist pipe tobacco. It burned intensely, and was far, far too hot. It gave me terrible tonguebite, and burned all the way down. However, the taste was not bad. It was reminiscent of cigars, and had an unrefined leafy sweetness. I continued to inhale it, and very quickly noted that my chest hurt a lot, not from the hot smoke, but from something else. It was the exact same sensation I get from having acute bronchitis and coughing a lot. It went away, however, and another feeling came on.

I began to feel a blissful clarity, an acuity that I had never felt from tobacco before. I looked around me, and up into the elm branches and the wispy cirrus clouds in the sky, and was very pleased. Everything was more real, and very nice. My vision was 'larger', and brighter. I also became a little nauseous, but I think water would have helped with that. I got on the rope swing that hangs from the elm, and enjoyed life quite a bit for a few minutes. The blissful clarity subsided rather quickly, but it is conducive, I think, to a mindset that could be very good, at least if used in moderation.

Tobacco has never made me feel like this before. I think regular tobacco could do it, but the body metabolizes nicotine very quickly, and it would be hard (for me, at least) to inhale enough smoke from regular tobacco fast enough to get to this state. We started out with rustica by making fun of it, but it is a very special, very powerful herb, and I am glad I've experienced it.

COPYRIGHTS: All reports are copyright Erowid and you agree not to download or analyze the report data without contacting Erowid Center for permission first.
Experience Reports are the writings and opinions of the individual authors who submit them.
Some of the activities described are dangerous and/or illegal and none are recommended by Erowid Center.